Activism for Abortion Rights and Access Is Global: What the United States Can Learn from the Rest of the World

While the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade guaranteed a legal right to abortion, universal access to legal abortion has never been achieved in the United States. At the same time, the Helms Amendment, a U.S. foreign assistance policy, is keeping millions of people around the world, particularly Black and brown people, from receiving abortion-related information and services. As abortion-rights advocates in the United States look for ways to move forward in the post-Roe era, two sources can offer insights and inspiration: the inclusive, human rights-based reproductive justice framework, and some of the strategies and approaches being used to expand access in countries around the world with restrictive abortion laws.